


Old Bone Songs

by Artistic_Fuss



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Kidnapping, M/M, Young Love, dauds an angry child, dauds moms not a witch, okay maybe she is, sword play, young gays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 07:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19204471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artistic_Fuss/pseuds/Artistic_Fuss
Summary: Daud's a siren's song along the docks and Corvo just can't stay away.





	Old Bone Songs

He looks older than Corvo, but Corvo cannot tell by how many years. It might be the dirt on his face or the little cut Corvo has noticed on his chin. He is told not to look, his mother, sister, father, uncles, they all tell him to look away. They make it sound like just looking at the boy will bring the Outsider into their home. He does not understand why. The boy is friendly and Corvo cannot stay away when his voice drifts down the piers in song, mixing with a stunning violin. Maybe that is why he thinks, the other boy is more siren than human. One of those witches touched by the dark gods, The Heretics. Though, only women are touched by them, or so Corvo has been taught. He questions that fact.

Corvo is, by far, not the only one attracted by the music. Sailors, dock workers, tourists. Non-locals and locals, they will all gather around. People will dance, and throw coins to the boy. He has never seemed to show interest in the money, does not so much as blink when a child takes a couple. Corvo used to think the boy did not notice. Until he saw an adult, in high-class clothing reach to take a coin or two. He did not know the boy carried a knife either, he found out a lot that day. 

It was frightening, and the talk of the schoolyard. Nothing spread through the schools like that had. They had never been taught that such a small blade could take off a finger. They were always told it was the butcher knives. Corvo comments that it must be why they are not allowed to play with knives. Why the guards go through training. Different groups of kids spoke of different parts of what happened. 

He jumped a fence twice his height! 

Did you hear that curse he spit at the Watch?

I saw him take the man’s finger with him.

Ma says he’s the Outsider’s blood and bone.

The teachers shush them all, they do not speak of that boy. His mother is a witch, she does no good. Sold herself to the Outsider for that boy. With their scoldings, they are ushered back into the school houses. The teachers look paranoid, like speaking of him will bring him to their schoolhouse. He never comes. In fact, no one sees him anywhere but the docks and nearby market. 

Corvo quietly brings him up after supper one night with his sister. She gives him a smack on the arm and hisses not to talk about him. Not when their parents are awake. So, he waits until he can hear the snoring of his father, knowing his mother will have fallen asleep long before. He creeps into his sister’s room he finds her dressed to go outside. She tells him to dress as well. Dress and do not wake their parents. He does as he is told, following her through the quiet city streets down to the water.

It is creepy down by the ocean at night. The whales sing and bellow. You can see the flickering lights of passing ships. The fog rolls across the beaches and docks in a manner that causes it to appear alive. Almost as if it is crawling. Beatrci walks him down along a foot beaten path. It makes him think of ghost stories, in which someone is lead down to the water and drowned. He trusts his sister, but he cannot stop the thoughts. It is even harder to do so when they reach their destination. 

An old fishing shack, crawling with vines. A hole in the porch roof reveals a gulls nest, long since abandoned. There is a dock of broken boards out the back with a small dark figure sitting on it, a fishing rod in hand. When Beatrici knocks the door is pulled open by an older woman. Touches of white through her black hair fall down her shoulders. Corvo ducks behind his sister. The woman laughs, greets them both by name and ushers them in. Corvo is hesitant but follows his sister in. A pot of tea boils on a wood stove and dishes dry on the counter. Plants hang from the ceiling and cloths cover the chairs. 

Corvo has thought it would be an uneasy place to be, and yet, he is more comfortable here than home. They sit at the table, tea is poured, and the woman and his sister just talk. He is not sure why she brought him. Why he was told to come and not head to bed. There is no point to him being here, there is nothing for him here. Nothing until the boy bounds through the door, dropping the fishing rod as he does. Corvo is not sure what to think. He’s shocked, surprised to find that this woman has a son. To find that it’s the boy Corvo has wanted to talk to. They both open their mouths to speak, but the old woman talks first, quick and in a language, Corvo has never heard. The other boy clearly has, replying with the same speed. He gestures to Corvo. Follow him. 

So Corvo does. 

It is him. The boy from the docks. Ma says they have to stay outside, that is what he tells Corvo. Grabbing his hand to tug him down a path through beach weed. He should not be going with the boy so easily. Scoldings from teachers and adults fill him as he runs down the path after the boy. 

He and Corvo run around the docks when Corvo comes back from class. Sticks in hand and mud on their knees. Corvo learns guitar and plays on the pier with Daud. He is nowhere near as talented. Daud laughs. 

“You’ll get better.”

He says that a lot.

You’ll get better. 

Sometimes Corvo does not know why. He can say it to the most trivial things. 

“You’ll get better.” He repeats it. Repeats it over and over when Corvo comes running to him with an inherited sword from his father. Corvo can look him in the eye and know it is true.

Steel eyes that burrow far beyond Corvo’s own, they can tell him the world. Show him the world in a tide pool. He thinks nothing when their noses bump in dark alleys by the school. They are close. Best friends. Best friends share their lives in every way. 

Even family. With the passing of Corvo’s father, his mother goes to Daud's. His sister hops a ship, leaves them. Daud is left as Corvo’s lone friend when his education ends. 

A friend with a sword arm as quick as his own. They are footprints left in wet sand. 

He has realized it now, friend is a light word for them. His heart skipping when Daud smirks at him when he laughs and his eyes crinkle. When he pushes Corvo into the waves with a smile that is all teeth and joy. 

The whales sing in the deep water while they kick up shells and bones. Ma sits on a stone watching them. Cleaning the bones they bring her. She smiles as she watches them grow close, their noses bump together. Neither feeling a need to hide. She tells no one. 

They forget her when their crooked noses press together. When Daud's split lip bleeds over Corvo’s. Hands clasped over the others back, leaving wet handprints in once dry shirts. 

If Corvo’s stepfather were to ever find out… well, Daud would take care of him. Of that, they are both certain. Age has only made him more fearsome. Scratchy stubble on his chin and cheeks with scared hands and arms. Careful tattoos on his shoulders. Tattoos Corvo can admire with his hands. With his mouth. 

———

Eighteen.

That is when he disappeared into the fog. When Corvo’s heart broke in a different way for the first time. He could ask no one. Speak to no one. To speak of the boy was to admit sin. To admit to knowing the Outsider’s son. 

But Corvo misses him. His hands, eyes… voice. The warmth of his breath. 

A single wrong word and Corvo’s tongue is taken from him. A single word of sin and he can no longer say a prayer. 

Ma shouts enough for both of them. Her son is gone, and her second is too scared to look at her. She cheers him on in competitions, hidden in scarves. The one her boy chose to share his life with. 

She buries a box when Corvo is sent to Gristal. A box of bones. A violin. 

A ring that was to be handed to her son. 

She knew something was coming, and told no one of what it was. No one would listen to her. A letter sent to Gristal’s Watchmen with Corvo’s name on it is all. She is gone by the time he tears into the envelope. The Overseers came for her. Hung her in front of the Chapel and burnt her body. The Outsider’s wife was gone. 

She spoke too much. Challenged too many beliefs, cried aloud for a son she had lost. Swore to the Outsider and sold her charms. Sin and heresy in the eyes of the Overseers. 

 

Corvo has not heard those songs from the docks since his youth. He can describe them to so many and no one but those that have been to that specific dock in Karnaca knows what he means. The boy with the stunning violin and a voice of the sea. A young siren with eyes of the stormy sea. 

He sits with his guitar, Jessamine feeding Emily, and plays what he remembers. They are not the same. He could never get the tune right, and he would never again sing the words. Jessamine enjoys it none-the-less. She makes up her own words from time to time. 

As Emily grows she sings along with playful words and a voice of youth.

Then, again, Corvo’s luck catches up to him, and he loses everything. 

In the Void, he hears the songs as echoes. When he opens his eyes the songs die out and the deep husk of a voice singing them does not exist in his daily life. He accepts that his teenage love must be long dead. Watching him from the Void. Truly the Outsider’s son after all.

The bone charms in his hand hum a similar tune and the runes know the words. 

Poison takes him, and Samuel sends his raft to the Flooded District. He opens his eyes and is met with an old familiar face and the voice of the Void songs. A gloved hand rests against his cheek and Daud’s voice speaks to him as if they are young again. 

“You’re always getting into such trouble, Corvo.”

His eyes close again, and his dreams are full of that siren-like violin and an old worn singing voice. Corvo wakes up hours later, a bed under his back and his ears full of that old violin. 

The ceiling above him looks closer to something of the Void than the living world. He can feel the life around him. This is real. 

The song ends and silence falls over everything. A sigh drifts to his ears and the bow touches the strings. The bow moves across the violin and it is another song of his youth. Corvo sits, legs over the edge of the bed, humming the tune. Daud laughs through the words of the song. 

Down the stairs Corvo finds Daud, resting against a desk. An old violin in hand. The old violin in hand. 

——-

Corvo bleeds on the ground, Emily in his arms. The Empress safe, still tender and caring. 

She sits on her throne and people bow for her. The rightful Empress sits on her throne. Corvo a figure of strength behind her. 

The halls of the Tower fill with the songs of a violin. The voice of an old stormy-eyed siren echoing through rooms. 

Again. Crooked noses press together and breath mingles. 

The Outsider’s son and the Royal Protector.


End file.
